The Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) has set up two units to promote professionalism within the service and improve its services to the public.

The Immigration Professional Standards and Ethics Unit (IPSEU) will help the GIS to enhance professionalism and check corruptible practices among personnel, while the International Relations Unit, a chaplaincy which is also in charge of protocol and events management, will enable the service to provide effective and efficient services to its clientele.

The Comptroller General of Immigration, Mr Kwame Essuah Takyi, announced this in Accra last Friday when he held a meeting with former heads of the service and their deputies in Accra.

Past directors

Mr Takyi explained that the purpose of the meeting was to tap into the expertise of the past directors in order to move the service to another level from where they left it.

He said as past directors their views on the way forward for the institution could not be overemphasised.

“It is worthy to note that the service, in its efforts to expand to effectively manage migration in Ghana, had seen the passage of the Immigration Service Act, 2016 (Act 908) and the Legislative Instrument 2245”, he said.

That, Mr Takyi said, had explicitly given the GIS the responsibility of patrolling the country’s borders and empowering the personnel of the Service with the legal mandate to bear arms and issue entry visas abroad.

Institutional memory

The Comptroller said the service was thus working to actualise the deployment of immigration officers to the country’s missions abroad and added that the GIS was looking forward to the wise counsel and guidance on the way forward from the former directors.

It was his view that one of the greatest assets of the institution was institutional memory which the past directors had and which was critical to the transformation of the service.

“I am personally glad to be part of this historic moment and to convene such an august meeting,“ Mr Takyi said.

Mr Hodari Okine, a former Director of the GIS, expressed happiness that Mr Takyi had deemed it fit to invite them to see how best to move the service forward.

He said it was the first time such an event had been organised and it showed that the current generation of staff appreciated the sacrifices of the past staff. He also assured Mr Takyi of their support in his effort to raise the service to higher heights.